After dragging out the early part of the story for two loooong posts, I’ll try to keep the rest to one. For all you late-comers, here’s Part 1 and Part 2.

There isn’t much to say for a while: we went on dates, met each other’s families, he came to visit me in NY and then in Iowa, and kept drama to a minimum. I knew things were serious for him (I refused to bring anything up regarding the future because I acted like a mature 12-year-old) when he made an offhand comment about me choosing where to spend the honeymoon, and again when talking about where I wanted to go to grad school, and he told me he’d come with me. (I later decided I was too tired of school and debt to go to grad school, so it wasn’t all that relevant, I suppose.) In the spring of 2007, after a mere five months or so of dating, he went on a chastity-based mission trip to Belize, and while there, decided that I was the one he wanted to marry. Continue reading →

I should take a moment to throw in here that the first half of the semester, I had been doing a lot of spiritual and emotional growing. I had a lot on my plate in different areas of my life, and was trying to get through it all. I had worked through my breakup, and been praying about my vocation in general. I was far from ready to run off to a convent (though that would have made this story more dramatic!) but was open to whatever God wanted for my life. Around the time Joe and I met, I was in Adoration and took a few minutes to pray about what God wanted for me, while still trying to plug my desire for marriage to someone like Joe. Not necessarily him, as I was in school for a bachelor’s and not a MRS degree, but he was a good example of what I wanted someday. A few moments later, the door to the chapel opened, and in walked Joe himself. Coincidence? You decide.

Anyway, I left off with my roommate threatening that hell would break loose if Joe didn’t follow through on his call. Luckily for Joe, (after three looooong days for the girls in my hall) he did call, was spared the wrath of a bunch of females, and we made a date for the coffeehouse that weekend. We ended up sitting there and talking for three hours. Joe had plans later that night – he was supposed to help kidnap a good friend for the friend’s birthday party. He did tell me about it, but didn’t say when he was supposed to go. I remember being able to see a clock from where I was sitting, but I figured that if he had other plans, it was up to him to keep track of the time. Unbeknownst to me, Joe was ignoring repeated phone calls from his friends wondering where he was. Ha. (He eventually made it, and the friend was forgiving. And still a close friend today.) When he dropped me off, I tried to be casual and tell him to give me a call sometime, you know, whatever, if you want. At least, that’s how I remember acting. Joe remembers it as coming off like “Call me!” so I obviously succeeded in playing it cool and not at all desperate. Continue reading →

I always love reading everyone else’s love stories, and had been meaning to write ours out eventually. After reading a few recently, I decided to follow Grace’s prompting and finally do it. There’s more to be read over at her link-up.

I guess our story starts in January of 2006. Joe had just returned from a semester abroad, and I survived the first half of my freshman year and was excited for my first trip to the March for Life in DC. For all you non-Frannies, our university would get a dozen or so charter buses to take all the zealous pro-life students to the March and back in about a 24 hour trip. My friends and I hopped on our bus around midnight, and naturally started taking photos – because that’s what freshman girls do. I vaguely noticed a group of mostly guys who were seated behind us, but didn’t pay much attention to them. Well, not much. My friend Lauren, who was next to me, later confessed that she remembered Joe because she thought he was hot. So, anyway, a friend goes to snap a picture of me and this boy who was behind me said, “Hey, can I be in the picture?” I gave the affirmative, made a goofy face, and this was the result: Continue reading →